Sadly the New Norm

I was trolling Craigslist today looking for any potential gigs when I came across this:

Sadly this seems to be have become common practice across the corporate world. Trying to get someone to “donate” or “volunteer” to give up their images. If you read closely they want to use the images in their “global campaign” with not even so much as a word about potential future work or compensation of any type. Sickening. In the past a job like this would have gone to professional photographer and the company would have had to pay for their time as well as the licensing for those images. Potentially costing them thousands of dollars. Now I can understand if you’re just starting or a small business not being able to afford this type of work and maybe asking for a favor. But if you’re company makes more than $1,000,000 in annual sales the .1% that images for a global campaign to grow your business should not be an issue. Besides it’s called a tax deduction. The photographer who “donates” their time gets nothing. NOTHING. Out of a deal like this. They can’t write off their time or their equipment wear and tear or any of their cost of doing business. I worked in Hollywood for a lot of years both in the music industry and the film business. The number of times I’ve seen this deal of “Hey work on this project for free and I’ll bring you all my future work.” is too numerous to count. The number of times I’ve actually seen those promises kept…………..ZERO. That’s right. NEVER. Now I know that some student or “Mom with a camera” will do this work for them. The images might even be something better than just acceptable, but as someone who tries to make a living at this there can be no forgiving the corporate shills who have the audacity to post things like this. As a professional photographer I am a business too and expect compensation for the work I perform. Sorry I’ll get off my soapbox now. I promise that my next post will have some pictures or at least be more positive.